04/04/2015

Blog Tour Stop: This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

Happy Weekend! I hope you are all enjoying the Easter Weekend. If you aren't dying eggs or hunting for any, how about settling in with a good inspirational read? Last year, I read and reviewed This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales. This is an book that tackles bullying and suicide in a positive way. I highly recommend reading this one. You can read my review here. With the paperback release, Leila is celebrating with a blog tour, which I am happy to be a part of. For the tour, Leila has put together a list of songs that are important to her, and she has asked each and every blogger on the tour to submit the song that either helped save their life, or was important to them. I will share my pick with you after we meet Leila and learn about her song today.

Let's meet Leila:

Leila Sales was born in 1984 and grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in psychology in 2006.

Now she lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works in the mostly glamorous world of children's book publishing. Leila spends most of her time thinking about sleeping, kittens, dance parties, and stories that she wants to write.

I am pleased to welcome Leila here today to tell you about a song that impacted her at a very young age. Here is Leila:

“So Far Away,” by Carole King

When I was in kindergarten, my best friend was a girl named Essie. She and I started the Singing and Swinging Club (membership: two), where we would go out to the swings at recess and sing the theme songs from “Rainbow Brite” and “Care Bears.”

Sometimes we would make puppets out of paper, tape, and straws, and then we would give them away door-to-door because my mom said we weren’t allowed to sell them. We would have sleepover parties where we ate a million slices of cinnamon and sugar toast and tried to stay up as late as we could and did live-action reenactments of computer games because we were extremely normal five year olds.

In first grade Essie switched schools. She lived far away, so we didn’t get to see each other very often. Sometimes our parents would drive us each half an hour so we could meet at the shopping center in the middle, and sometimes we would talk on the phone, but it is as hard as you might expect to keep up a Singing and Swinging Club via phone, or at the Liberty Tree Mall.

By second grade, I barely ever saw Essie, and I didn’t really get the sense that she minded—or at least that she minded as much as I did. My favorite album at the time was Carole King’s Tapestry, and I used to listen to the song “So Far Away” over and over and cry about missing Essie.

“So far awayDoesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore?It would be so fine to see your face at my doorIt doesn’t help to know that you’re just time away.”

The point of this story is not only that I was an extremely emotional seven year old. It’s also that this was the first time I ever understood about the universality of emotions, and the ability of music to express them. Carole King had never known Essie and had never given puppets away on the backstreets of suburban Massachusetts and I have no way of knowing if she ever sang on the swings. But she still understood EXACTLY HOW I FELT and expressed it better than I ever could have. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s all you can ask from a song.

Thanks so much Leila for sharing one of your songs with us today.

Now for my song. I have never been to the point where I was so depressed that I was suicidal, but like anyone, I have gone through my fair share of rough patches in my life, and I survived a couple of broken hearts. Music has always been an important part of my life, and I love that I am now sharing my love of music and books with my two young children. When I was asked to pick a song that helped save me, I chose Just Wait by Blues Traveler. This song came out in 1995, which was a wonderful year, and a tumultuous year for me. I was a sophomore in college, and I fell in love fast and hard. I really thought that I had met the one. Unfortunately, he wasn't, and I was left picking up the pieces of my broken heart. Thankfully six months later, I did meet the right one, my husband. I was an emotional mess when we first met, and unwilling to completely open my heart and trust again. To make matters worse, we were long distance as I was going to college in Idaho and he was in Arizona. Of course, there were so many naysayers who told me long distance relationships couldn't work, but we chose to believe differently. One day, my husband to be, called me and told me he found the perfect song for us. Just Wait by Blues Traveler. He pointed out one verse in particular:

"If you think I've given up on you you're crazy And if you think I don't love you well then you're just wrong In time you just might take to feeling better Time is the beauty of the road being long."

Long story short, we waited and believed and after two years, we each graduated from college, and then we were finally able to be together. Twenty years later, we are still going strong and we have been blessed with two children.

This song got me through plenty of days when I was down and doubted. That is why I chose Just Wait by Blues Traveler. What song was important in helping you get through a trying period in your life?

Finally, the best part! The giveaway! Thanks to the wonderful folks over at Macmillan, I am able to offer two chances to win. I have up for grabs SONGS THAT WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE’ mix CD, or an ARC of TONIGHT THE STREETS ARE OURS. Two winners will be selected in the U.S. /Canada only. To enter fill out the Rafflecopter after reading Contest Policies.

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Blog Tour Stop: This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

Happy Weekend! I hope you are all enjoying the Easter Weekend. If you aren't dying eggs or hunting for any, how about settling in with a good inspirational read? Last year, I read and reviewed This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales. This is an book that tackles bullying and suicide in a positive way. I highly recommend reading this one. You can read my review here. With the paperback release, Leila is celebrating with a blog tour, which I am happy to be a part of. For the tour, Leila has put together a list of songs that are important to her, and she has asked each and every blogger on the tour to submit the song that either helped save their life, or was important to them. I will share my pick with you after we meet Leila and learn about her song today.

Let's meet Leila:

Leila Sales was born in 1984 and grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in psychology in 2006.

Now she lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works in the mostly glamorous world of children's book publishing. Leila spends most of her time thinking about sleeping, kittens, dance parties, and stories that she wants to write.

I am pleased to welcome Leila here today to tell you about a song that impacted her at a very young age. Here is Leila:

“So Far Away,” by Carole King

When I was in kindergarten, my best friend was a girl named Essie. She and I started the Singing and Swinging Club (membership: two), where we would go out to the swings at recess and sing the theme songs from “Rainbow Brite” and “Care Bears.”

Sometimes we would make puppets out of paper, tape, and straws, and then we would give them away door-to-door because my mom said we weren’t allowed to sell them. We would have sleepover parties where we ate a million slices of cinnamon and sugar toast and tried to stay up as late as we could and did live-action reenactments of computer games because we were extremely normal five year olds.

In first grade Essie switched schools. She lived far away, so we didn’t get to see each other very often. Sometimes our parents would drive us each half an hour so we could meet at the shopping center in the middle, and sometimes we would talk on the phone, but it is as hard as you might expect to keep up a Singing and Swinging Club via phone, or at the Liberty Tree Mall.

By second grade, I barely ever saw Essie, and I didn’t really get the sense that she minded—or at least that she minded as much as I did. My favorite album at the time was Carole King’s Tapestry, and I used to listen to the song “So Far Away” over and over and cry about missing Essie.

“So far awayDoesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore?It would be so fine to see your face at my doorIt doesn’t help to know that you’re just time away.”

The point of this story is not only that I was an extremely emotional seven year old. It’s also that this was the first time I ever understood about the universality of emotions, and the ability of music to express them. Carole King had never known Essie and had never given puppets away on the backstreets of suburban Massachusetts and I have no way of knowing if she ever sang on the swings. But she still understood EXACTLY HOW I FELT and expressed it better than I ever could have. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s all you can ask from a song.

Thanks so much Leila for sharing one of your songs with us today.

Now for my song. I have never been to the point where I was so depressed that I was suicidal, but like anyone, I have gone through my fair share of rough patches in my life, and I survived a couple of broken hearts. Music has always been an important part of my life, and I love that I am now sharing my love of music and books with my two young children. When I was asked to pick a song that helped save me, I chose Just Wait by Blues Traveler. This song came out in 1995, which was a wonderful year, and a tumultuous year for me. I was a sophomore in college, and I fell in love fast and hard. I really thought that I had met the one. Unfortunately, he wasn't, and I was left picking up the pieces of my broken heart. Thankfully six months later, I did meet the right one, my husband. I was an emotional mess when we first met, and unwilling to completely open my heart and trust again. To make matters worse, we were long distance as I was going to college in Idaho and he was in Arizona. Of course, there were so many naysayers who told me long distance relationships couldn't work, but we chose to believe differently. One day, my husband to be, called me and told me he found the perfect song for us. Just Wait by Blues Traveler. He pointed out one verse in particular:

"If you think I've given up on you you're crazy And if you think I don't love you well then you're just wrong In time you just might take to feeling better Time is the beauty of the road being long."

Long story short, we waited and believed and after two years, we each graduated from college, and then we were finally able to be together. Twenty years later, we are still going strong and we have been blessed with two children.

This song got me through plenty of days when I was down and doubted. That is why I chose Just Wait by Blues Traveler. What song was important in helping you get through a trying period in your life?

Finally, the best part! The giveaway! Thanks to the wonderful folks over at Macmillan, I am able to offer two chances to win. I have up for grabs SONGS THAT WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE’ mix CD, or an ARC of TONIGHT THE STREETS ARE OURS. Two winners will be selected in the U.S. /Canada only. To enter fill out the Rafflecopter after reading Contest Policies.